Favorite between-period entertainment?

I thought this would be a good time for a "nostalgia" topic -- it's a bye week, the polls have already come out, and I, for one, am tired of the "what-if" game.

Anyway, I was wondering about interesting between-period events that people have seen at hockey games -- both at Lynah and at other venues.

For me, some highlights include:

-- the giant sling-shot they had at RPI this year

-- watching cadets at an Army game wrap themselves in garbage bags and fling themselves onto the ice to see who would travel the farthest (this was during the period when Army was part of the ECAC)

-- the tiny hockey players who sometimes play at Lynah

1) I miss the Subway banner at Lynah. It kept the crowd boisterous through the intermission.
2) The dorky bicycle event (at Brown??) was humorous
3) The relay races at various venues (mostly cause people always fall and that is funny in a "Glad it is you and not me" sort of way).
4) Anything - as long as it isn't some variation of the stupid chuck a puck or some mascot skating around doing nothing - sorry John. You know I love you.

I suspect this whole thing was just a ploy by Anne to get me to dig out the Moose tape. What in God's name I'm talking about will be clear when I find it

The cow using her udder as a slingshot at the "Got Milk" Lake Placid ECACs. Disturbing.

There were 2 Subway contests, one where people through frisbees from the top of Section B and tried to have it land on the banner on the ice(nobody every won this). I would have kept the frisbee. Then there was the one where they would blindfold someone (usually a little kid), and have him try to find the banner that was laid out on the ice within some time limit. That was WAY better, especially when they had some little kid and the buzzer "accidently" forgot to go off at the end of the time limit. Little kids rule!

Ah...the memories.....

Can't forget about Sarah Hughes' little sister performing as Charlie Chaplan a few years back too....

I thought it was Sarah Hughes herself that performed at Lynah and I want to say it was Harvard/Brown weekend in the fall of 2000.

Personally, for novel ways to distribute things to the crowd during intermission, I have to vote for the remote controlled blimps which float around the rink and periodically dump presumably a gift certificate or coupons into the crowd. It really gets the crowd going too and little kids trip over each other following the blimp around the rink. Yay for little kids. Boo for little kids tripping over each other. They do this at BU and I think used to do it at Dartmouth and other rinks I'm sure.

The Dartmouth mascot from a few years ago... 1999, I think. It skated on the ice with a human sized body and this huge inflated head that slowly bobbed back and forth with each step. The mental image alone still cracks me up, but watching it live was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The whole Cornell crowd burst out into laughter that pretty much maintained throughout the period break. (Age might still have that on video somewhere.)

I haven't seen it there since so I guessed they realized we were all laughing at not with them.


I also enjoyed when the CU Bear actually did entertaining things during the period break like head stands while balancing over the goal, running across the ice then gliding from about center ice into the net (and sometimes missing), bringing out stuffed animals that represented the opposing team then beating the mess out of them, acting out silly things or just fighting with the other bear, and doing skillful twirls and what-not. Now the bear just skates around and waves.

I liked it when the little kids played hockey between periods at the York exhibition game early this season. They should make that a semi-regular event.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a zamboni driver in a tux.

Adara '99 wrote: [q]The Dartmouth mascot from a few years ago... 1999, I think. It skated on the ice with a human sized body and this huge inflated head that slowly bobbed back and forth with each step. . . I haven't seen it there since so I guessed they realized we were all laughing at not with them.[/q]

So you think that the mascots thought that they were stylish? Trust me - you were laughing with them.

That's precisely the moose of which I speak. I've got the video in an Advil-worthy pile of unlabeled 8mm cassettes. I'll find it eventually

Little kids rule!
Get 30 of them out there with 3 pucks. Best entertainment for the money!

The garbage bag-clad cadets have to take the prize. Complete disbelief. What would Rummy have thought?

3. Skating pep bands (now extinct?). I think Wisconsin and Brown were the last to practice this art form. For all I know, Wisconsin still does it. I think Brown gave it up a long time ago, but I could be wrong there, too.

2. The wee youth hockey players. Bring on the Mites!

1. Call me a fossil, but to me, there's nothing as soothing as watching a well-driven zamboni methodically clean the ice. Such a pleasing contrast to the frenzy of the game. It's like watching an old-school barber shave your grandfather: So graceful, so cleansing, so tuned by experience and tradition.

Brown's band skated after the game at Brown this year. It was pretty entertaining. Unfortunately for them, I think more Cornell people stuck around to watch them than did their own fans (or rather, were we just hanging around discussing the game ).

And I have to stick up for the Bear here.... Unfortunately for him/them, more restrictions make it tougher and tougher to "put on a good show". Not to mention having to deal with people throwing candy back this year (I'll save you all from a rant). Besides, nothing's better than seeing little kids react to the Bear. I'll never forget seeing the Bear hand candy over the glass to a group of excited little kiddies all wearing Bear hats, fur and all, at Lake Placid last year- too cute!

Hillel J. Hoffmann '85 wrote:

1. Call me a fossil, but to me, there's nothing as soothing as watching a well-driven zamboni methodically clean the ice. Such a pleasing contrast to the frenzy of the game. It's like watching an old-school barber shave your grandfather: So graceful, so cleansing, so tuned by experience and tradition.

Not nearly as cool as the old Madison Square Garden, where, as it was designed in pre-Zamboni days, the ice was resurfaced by several guys skating around in formation pushing tanks dripping hot-water while others with squeegee-kinda things followed behind them removing the excess.

Al sez: "At the old Madison Square Garden, in pre-Zamboni days, the ice was resurfaced by several guys skating around in formation pushing tanks dripping hot water while others with squeegee things followed behind them."

HH sez: And I bet the ice was better then than it is at the new MSG.

DEFINITELY the little kids scrimmaging in front of the crowd. Best entertainment ever!

LI-TTLE KIDS!! LI-TTLE KIDS!! LI-TTLE KIDS!!

> Not nearly as cool as the old Madison Square Garden, where, as it was designed in pre-Zamboni days, the ice was resurfaced by several guys skating around in formation

On pre-Lynah Beebe Lake, the ice was resurfaced by a horse-drawn contraption that melted down ruts. One game was delayed when the horse fell through the ice (but was unhurt).

Sixty years later, an ECAC playoff game (at Brown IIRC) had to be postponed when the Zamboni stalled on the ice and melted through it.

Subway owns Clarkson.

Brown's Pep band was on skates after the game against Cornell this year.

Greg said:[Q]On pre-Lynah Beebe Lake, the ice was resurfaced by a horse-drawn contraption that melted down ruts. One game was delayed when the horse fell through the ice (but was unhurt).[/Q]And does anybody remember this qoute?[Q]And you were there.[/Q]I was going to say it about Greg, but that would have been mean.)

At a Jr A game this year they had a minivan circle the ice with its sun roof open. Fans tried to throw imitation pucks in. I'm not sure where the pucks came from or whether they were purchased or free. They must have been made of some rigid foam, because the misses didn't dent the hood or roof. Anyway, the pucks were numbered and anyone whose puck made it through the sun roof won an oil change at the local dealer whose vehicle was on parade.

i was disappointed in their performance though. i thought they'd be doing tricks and formations, with movement, like a marching band on a football field. i guess that's a little too much to expect...

[q]i thought they'd be doing tricks and formations, with movement, like a marching band on a football field.[/q]

Their "marching band" doesn't move either